The Man Who Busts Cricket's Biggest Myths!

Rohit Sharma’s career is the perfect antidote to all notions of Indian cricket, and may just be the next Rahul Dravid of Indian cricket!

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Happy birthday Rohit!

If not for that, perhaps this isn’t the time to write about Rohit, the cricketer who blossomed so late when everyone around is talking about Rishi Kapoor and Irfan, and how they went away so soon. Last few hours have been a grim reminder that the first half of 2020 has been cruel -- ending lives and putting the whole world and its dynamics to pause.

Indian cricket, like the sporting world, is waiting for the reboot command as hope floats on social media, WhatsApp groups and research papers that an antidote is just around the corner.  When the world around us is striving hard to find an antidote to this novel coronavirus, Rohit’s career would come about striking in many ways. Rohit, believe it or not, has been the perfect antidote to several myths surrounding Indian cricket.

In a country where there is both quality and quantity, talent which oozes out from every club, district and state, Rohit has been a great exception. Indian cricket is usually full of stories about how talented cricketers got so little chances because of stiff competition. But coaches, selectors, skippers and team management has been unusually very persistent and patient with Rohit, because of the talent he always possessed.

Rohit failed and was allowed to fail but he also busted the myth that god-gifted talent walks easy and dominate --- like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli did; in fact, Rohit kept us busy arguing for the most part of his career if he indeed belonged.

Another myth is more of a latest trend -- that before you score between wickets, you need a good score between the cones. Yo-yo score, somehow, became a selection mandate to be eligible to represent Team India. Rohit’s score on the yo-yo is more classified but he’s made his scores on the field jump out. Three double hundreds in ODIs is just the piece of statistics that makes him a white-ball maestro, to say the least.

There is a seething temptation to compare him Yuvraj for his white-ball exploits, even for his limited and interrupted success in red-ball. Even a good thought about aligning him with Virender Sehwag, a middle-order batter who achieved phenomenal success at top of the order – something that Rohit is well on his way, if not already. Rohit may not strike the kind of fear in a bowler that they feel bowling to Sehwag or Yuvraj but he makes similar notes on the scoreboard.

Yet, his biggest but least expected parameter for Rohit would rather be with Rahul Dravid. If anyone knows how to live a life under the shadow, Dravid has earned respect and admiration for living and batting alongside Sachin Tendulkar. And for the same very reason, Rohit knows a wee bit about sharing the dressing room with Virat Kohli.

While the world acknowledges the brilliance of Rohit and the time he has on his hand to play a ball, it remains obsessed with Virat. And that is just about being a batsman.

Rohit also has a little element about his career as a captain, a leader who is quite understated and a crossover between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Not as calm as Mahi and certainly not overtly expressive as Virat. Rohit is already spoken of as one of greatest skippers in IPL, having led Mumbai Indians to ravishing success but he still remains only a standby for Virat in Team India. Rohit may well, given that both Virat and his careers remain intertwined and tangled, be the best skipper (permanently just to reiterate) India never had. But then again, he would just a busting another myth of Indian cricket, where the side’s best batsman eventually gets the opportunity to lead.

The world calls him Hitman for the effortless hits, but this man has also hit some prevailing notions in Indian cricket for a big six.